No spite - Blythe

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Dr Karl Blythe has rejected claims that he was being spiteful in his criticisms of the economic policies of his former People's National Party (PNP) colleagues because his recent attempts to regain a position in the party had been rejected.

Party insiders claim that Blythe was smarting because he was again snubbed by the leadership of the PNP, in his bid to re-enter representational politics.

"That is foolishness," Blythe scoffed. "How can I, and I have not even made up my mind about re-entering representational politics? I have been crucified so often, that does not really matter."

After being repeatedly disappointed by the leadership of his old party, before quitting representational politics nearly four years ago, Blythe re-emerged last week with a press release on the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) controversy that was highly critical of former finance minister, Dr Omar Davies and the administration of then prime minister, P. J. Patterson. Blythe was a Cabinet minister in that administration.

Blythe has claimed that the PNP administration of the 1990s must shoulder much of the blame for the financial meltdown that led to the collapse of several institutions and the establishment of FINSAC. The body was set up to bail out companies that suffered in the meltdown and with its takeover of the financial institutions that were in trouble, debtors incurred very high interest rates resulting in many of them losing their businesses when they were unable to pay.

Blythe's pronouncements came after the officers of the party voted to accept him as a member of the National Executive Council, the most powerful arm of the party after the Annual Conference.

A former PNP vice-president and Cabinet member in the P.J. Patterson administration confirmed to The Sunday Gleaner that last month's NEC meeting was the first he had attended since he left politics three and half years ago.

No discussions

Blythe said he has not had any discussion with PNP president Portia Simpson Miller or any member of the hierarchy since he left politics in 2007.

He said constituents had, however, approached him about representing the party again.

The PNP constitution stipulates that a member of the party who has served for four terms or 20 years in the Parliament shall, upon the recommendation of the officers of the party, have membership rights on the National Executive Council for a period of ten years.

Blythe walked away from representational politics in 2007, a dejected man, after being spurned by yet another PNP leader.

As a candidate in the 2005 presidential election, Blythe reportedly surrendered the bulk of his delegates' support to Simpson Miller, enabling her to defeat Dr Peter Phillips, in expectation of a Cabinet position. However, he was not included in the Simpson Miller Cabinet.

He had not been in the Cabinet since 2002 when Simpson Miller's predecessor, P.J. Patterson, asked for his resignation as minister of housing in the midst of the Operation PRIDE scandal.

Although Blythe's name was cleared by Patterson himself, following an enquiry into the scandal, which involved the National Housing Development Corporation, he was never called back to the Cabinet.

It was not the first time that Blythe had been disappointed by Patterson's actions. He was left out when Patterson reshuffled his Cabinet in 1995 and resigned as junior minister along with Karl Samuda (who was in the PNP at the time) and Francis Tulloch.

"I would have blown up a long time ago, if I were going to blow under pressure," asserted Blythe. "No matter how they hurt me I would never bring my party into disrepute, but that does not mean that I should not tell the truth."

Blythe suggested that this was why both Norman and Michael Manley, two former PNP leaders were in favour of separation of powers.